Pirates are way trendy right now. We can’t remember how many eye-patched and peg-legged games we’ve reviewed over the past twelve months, including a few MMOs. Most have fallen into two categories: knockoffs of the classic Sid Meier’s Pirates! title and online RPGs with a little swashbuckling flavor injected. Pirates of the Burning Sea brings the two together, surprisingly managing to take many of the gameplay aspects of the classic game online, and do it well.

Insert Pirate Cliché Here

Pirates of the Burning Sea takes you to the new world in 1720; the hotbed and peak time for exploring, trading, and for those who would seek to capitalize on all that bustling trade (i.e. pirates). It was an interesting era that still tickles the imaginations of Hollywood film producers and gamers alike, and this game gives an engaging glimpse into it. Okay, it isn’t necessarily a realistic glimpse. With player-created warring societies and a comprehensive economy, however, it’s a very interesting virtual world here.

In the game, you start by choosing a faction. You can be British, French, Spanish, or a pirate. Choose a country and you can also select from a few different classes: enlisted military officer, trader, or privateer. Choose to be a pirate, though, and that’s not only your affiliation but your class as well. Nationality impacts dialogue and quest options while class determines whether your character is light on his feet in swordplay, a devilish opponent on the waves, or perhaps an especially shrewd trader on the docks.

While there are advantages to each, classes overlap quite extensively, much more so than your typical MMO. Regardless of whether you’re a trader or a pirate you’ll be able to take care of yourself in battle and in the shops. While a military officer will be able to rely a little more on skill when engaged in a naval duel, a trader might have been able to afford a slightly better ship, leading to some potentially very evenly matched battles.

Ship-to-Ship

Pirates has a very deep economic system that lets you buy plots of land, produce raw goods, then either refine them or simply trade them on the open market. Societies (guilds) can pool resources to become dominant suppliers of a given commodity. They then can assign members to protect trade ships as they attempt to make deliveries to potentially hostile ports. It’s fascinatingly deep, but really it’s the naval combat that’s going to interest most gamers, and thankfully that’s just as good.

As your characters progress they’ll pick up skills, both hand-to-hand combat and ship-based skills. Skills will enable the crew to reload the cannons more quickly, do extra damage to the sails of your opponent, or increases your speed for a short time. Tactical captains can use these skills to boost the performance of their ships and crews, but skills alone won’t provide enough of an advantage to sink someone who is better-practiced in the fundamentals of ship-to-ship combat.

Captains can load many different types of ammo into their cannons, including your typical round shot for perforating hulls, bar shot for dropping masts, star shot for shredding sails, and a few flavors of grape shot for attacking crews. During battle you’ll need to ensure your hull isn’t too damaged while also watching your sails (a slow ship is a dead ship) and all the while watching that your crew doesn’t get decimated. Lose too many men on deck and your opponent will come aboard, taking your ship without much of a fight.

Board an opponent’s ship and a mini combat arena is created. You face off against your opponent’s crew and captain. The healthier your crew is the NPCs you’ll have to rely upon here. Kill the captain and the opposing ship is yours. Here is where those hand-to-hand abilities come into play, including various sword and pistol attacks. On foot you have slightly less to worry about than when attacking by ship. Some additional tweaks were added here to make combat somewhat less than just tapping at function keys, like being able to knock your opponent off-balance. In the end, this sort of combat just isn’t as much fun.

Shining Seas

These days gorgeous water effects are almost a given in a game, and Pirates doesn’t disappoint. The sea rolls and glistens beautifully, reflecting the surroundings when viewed from certain angles or, in clearer seas, revealing sunken treasure and giant rocks lurking beneath the surface when seen from above. The ships that cross those seas are quite impressive too, with decks covered with cannons manned by an animated crew.  Only the sails are a little disappointing, appearing as simple semitransparent textures, but they do turn realistically as your ship tacks into and against the wind.

On land things are less impressive to behold. Characters look fine, but the overall design of ports and the other on-foot areas just don’t compare to the open seas. Performance is a bit disappointing too, requiring a serious system to turn on all the graphical goodies and maintain a solid frame rate. Really, though, that’s the case with any new game.

Considering that this is a new game of the MMO variety the online experience is fairly solid, but bugs and annoyances can be found. Ships and opponents have the tendency to warp from place to place during combat when lag starts to creep up. There were a few other glitches, but overall the game was reasonably solid.

Way Deep

Pirates of the Burning Sea is a very, very deep game. There’s PvP for those who want it; trading, crafting, and a detailed economy for the would-be barons of the sea; and the kind of strategic and dynamic combat that will appeal to gamers who just can’t get into the typically boring MMO function key combat system. It’s not for everyone, and at $50 plus $15 per month it’s not cheap, but if you’re looking for a game with amazing depth, this is it.

Review by: Tim Stevens